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Getting People to Do Stuff When What You Really Want to Do Is Knock Heads Together

As leaders (with or without title), we sometimes just want to knock heads together. Where we should be celebrating great results, we see mistakes, reactivity, passivity, infighting, lack of follow-through, and lack, it seems, of common sense.

Of course, we know we shouldn’t knock heads together (or yell or curse). If we do that we know we will get active or passive resistance and prolong the problems.

What we really need to do is take the time to teach, coach, and truth-tell. We teach when they don’t get it and lack confidence. We coach (mainly by asking open-ended questions) when they mostly get it and lack confidence. We truth-tell (“You seem to be struggling with this.”) when they don’t get it and think they do get it (over-confidence).

We need not do these things forever. As soon as they get it and are confident, we can set the goals, encourage them, and let them run with it.